Increasing temperatures and changes in the intensity and frequency of precipitations may impact the ability of tropical high-elevation Andean ecosystems (Paramos) to store and retain carbon (C). We, therefore, examined how warming and fluctuations in soil moisture could influence soil CO2 emissions from heterotrophic respiration (RH, the result of microbial respiration), of two Páramos of contrasting climatic regimes within their area of distribution.